Cry Wolf (2005)

Eight unsuspecting high school seniors at a posh boarding school, who delight themselves on playing games of lies, come face-to-face with terror and learn that nobody believes a liar - even when they're telling the truth.

Director:

Jeff Wadlow

Writers:

Jeff Wadlow, Beau Bauman

Stars:

Julian Morris, Lindy Booth, Jared Padalecki

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Erica Yates	...	Becky
Julian Morris	...	Owen
Lindy Booth	...	Dodger
Jane Beard	...	Miss McNally
Gary Cole	...	Mr. Matthews
Jared Padalecki	...	Tom
Jesse Janzen	...	Randall
Paul James	...	Lewis
Sandra McCoy	...	Mercedes
Ethan Cohn	...	Graham
Kristy Wu	...	Regina
Sabrina Gilbert	...	Game Player
Ashleigh Pixley	...	Game Player
Shauna Sauls	...	Game Player
Ranel Johnson	...	Game Player

Storyline

Nobody believes a liar - even when they're telling the truth. When a young woman is found murdered, a group of local high school students decide to further scare their classmates by spreading online rumors that a serial killer called "The Wolf" is on the loose. By describing "The Wolf's" next victims, the students' game is to see how many people they can convince - and if anyone will uncover the lie. But when the described victims actually do start turning up dead, suddenly no one knows where the lies end and the truth begins. As someone or something begins hunting the students themselves, the game turns terrifyingly real.

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Plot Keywords:

teenage girl | bikini | mask | halloween costume | halloween | 

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Taglines:

You Lie... You Die!

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for violence, terror, disturbing images, language, sexuality and a brief drug reference

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

16 September 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Living the Lie

Filming Locations:

Collegiate School - 103 N. Mooreland Rd, Richmond, Virginia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,428,209, 18 September 2005, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$10,047,674, 3 November 2005

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$15,585,495

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rogue Pictures,Hypnotic

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Lindy Booth and Sandra McCoy both acted in an episode of Supernatural (2005), which stars Jared Padalecki. Booth was in Supernatural: Rock and a Hard Place (2013) and McCoy was in Supernatural: Bedtime Stories (2007).

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Goofs

(at around 32 mins) This movie was released in late 2005, but Graham makes mention of WWF tryouts. The WWF was renamed the WWE in 2002.

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Quotes

Mercedes: Congratulations, baby. Tonight you could've gotten laid, but instead you got fucked.

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Connections

Spoofs Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)

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Soundtracks

Tougher Than It Is
Written by John McCrea and Gabriel Nelson
Performed by Cake
Courtesy of Columbia Records
By Arrangement with SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT

User Reviews

An enjoyable and clever underrated film due to poor and misleading marketing

A group of friends at Wesley, a rich upscale high school, play a game called cry wolf every night. The game was created by the group's leader Dodger (Lindy Booth) who marks one of her friends as the liar with a red marker and it's up to the rest of the group to figure out who is the liar. One day Dodger and the new kid at the school Owen (Julian Morris) decide it will be fun to make up an entire lie about a murdering serial killer loose on campus. Owen and Dodger go along with the idea and send a mass email to everyone on campus letting them know that a killer by the name of "The Wolf" is murdering people on campus. But it isn't long before this little joke turns into a real threat that might cost everyone involved in the joke their lives.

Three words can be used to describe this film clever, suspenseful, and enjoyable! I really enjoyed this film and I didn't see it coming at all, I expected something mediocre at best when walking into the theater. While the marketing for this film is misleading and makes this movie seem like another brainless teen horror slasher flick, I assure you it's not like that. While I wouldn't call this movie 100% percent original, I would say that this movie is a pretty fresh idea with a lot of originality. This movie is great for a few reasons, the first reason is because the idea behind it is pretty new, the second reason is that the movie keeps you on the edge of your seat with suspense, and lastly the film keeps you guessing. I love movies that make you keep you thinking and just when you think you know what's going to happen, your proved wrong. This film contains a lot of twists! And I haven't seen a movie that kept me guessing all the way till the end in a long time.

The acting for this cast of newcomers is actually pretty good especially for the genre at hand. I really enjoyed Julian Morris's character Owen; he played the part very well and he was very believable. I also really enjoyed Lindy Booth who was excellent as Dodger, she had such a controlling power about her and she really brought it out on screen. Also I have to mention that she was incredibly cute! Also the other surprise here was Jon Bon Jovi who actually can act and sing which is always an incredible pair but he was good as the sleazy journalism teacher. There are several others to mention here and that would probably take far too much time to list them all but they were all good at the roles they played.

"Cry_Wolf" was directed by newcomer Jeff Wadlow a recent USC film graduate. I must say that I liked what he did with the film. He knew how to build the suspense and capture the character's fears and excitement. I really liked some of the camera shots especially the whole collage thing when all of the people started to read the email about the serial killer on campus. Nice work there! Also Jeff co-wrote the film with Beau Bauman and I must say the film was a pretty fresh idea and I loved the whole idea behind the film considering it seems like an idea that could happen now with computers and cell phones everywhere.

So to sum it up, "Cry_Wolf" is not what the trailers lead you to believe; instead it's a suspense thriller with good acting, a semi original story, and a great ending. The movie contains several twists that keeps the audience always on the edge of their seats asking the question "What's going to happen next?" It might not be an Oscar worthy film but it's a damn good thriller to say the least. It keeps you guessing and interested from start to finish and what more can you ask for from a mainstream Hollywood film?

MovieManMenzel's final rating for "Cry_Wolf" is a 8/10. Buy the big popcorn and sit back and enjoy the suspense.